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墨書 Inktalez
Human Sacrifice
Inside the pitch-black coffin, putrid blood and the juice of fresh Sophora Wood steamed by high temperatures flowed together. Zhou Manman's body was in a state of decay, a tragic sight of death.
I stood beside the coffin with red-rimmed eyes, unable to comprehend that the person who had shared my days and nights was gone just like that.
A few brave villagers approached to take a look inside the coffin, only to turn away and vomit. Li Fugui and Guo the Blind also witnessed the scene within, and Guo the Blind exclaimed with delight, "Congratulations everyone, the calamity of Futu Ridge has been eliminated, the female ghost has been vanquished!"
Li Fugui quietly withdrew the Soul Piercer he had been gripping tightly into his sleeve. He gazed at the corpse in the coffin before turning to leave.
"Village Chief, should we cover the coffin? Tomorrow marks the Seventh Day. Let me sprinkle some corpse-dissolving powder inside; I guarantee there won't be even a bone left!" Guo the Blind said with an expression of overwhelming joy.
"No need. Just burn it here along with the coffin!" Li Fugui replied without looking back.
The crowd began to praise Guo the Blind's miraculous methods. Amidst their cheers, they gathered dry branches and placed the coffin atop them.
As I watched the body about to be reduced to ashes in the roaring flames, a profound emptiness filled my heart.
Huzi pulled me away from the scene, urging me not to look any longer.
Guo the Blind also left amidst the crowd's cheers. He glanced back at me, a barely noticeable smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
After Huzi and I arrived at Li Fugui's home, I found him tending to the flowers and plants by the wall in his yard. He said nothing upon seeing me enter and continued with his work.
Huzi asked, "Grandpa, is Zhou Manman really gone for good?"
Li Fugui said, "What outcome do you expect?"
Huzi replied, "But isn't it true that Guo the Blind will only lose her soul when the sun sets seven days later? It's clearly written in Hao's book."
Li Fugui snorted and said, "Without absolute certainty, you shouldn't provoke Guo the Blind. If he wants to kill you, do you really think you can survive?"
Huzi fell silent. Everyone knew that Guo the Blind was not only the village's local doctor but also a Feng Shui Master, trained by the Old Scholar. If he wanted to secretly eliminate someone, he probably wouldn't even need to confront them directly.
I regained my composure and said, "I suspect that the body in the coffin is not Zhou Manman's. The body must have been swapped. Whether it's the coffin, the yellow talisman, or the guards around it, it's all a diversion. Guo the Blind definitely has ulterior motives."
"But the coffin was nailed shut, and there were so many people guarding it. How could Guo the Blind possibly have had the chance to swap it?" Huzi questioned.
I responded, "Li Tong was found hanged in his own bathhouse, with the door locked from the inside. No matter how you look at it, he was killed by a ghost, but in reality, he was murdered by Guo the Blind. There are too many unknowns and mysteries in this world. With Guo the Blind's skills, swapping a body from a sealed coffin is not impossible."
"But both the coffin and the body have already been burned," Huzi looked at me with confusion.
When Li Fugui heard that I believed Li Tong was killed by Guo the Blind, he showed no reaction. Instead, he stood up and wiped his hands clean of mud. He looked at me and said, "You’re not wrong; there are many unknowns and extraordinary events in this world that you can't even imagine. But I must tell you that Zhou Manman is indeed dead."
"On what basis do you say that?" I asked.
Li Fugui replied, "The night before Zhou Manman was put into the coffin, I secretly tied a red string around her ankle to prevent Guo the Blind from doing anything. When the coffin was opened just now, her ankle still had that red string on it. I know you think that since Guo the Blind could swap bodies, he would have noticed that detail about the red string. But I can tell you clearly that there is no one in this world who can swap a person's physical body from a sealed space—Guo the Blind can't do it, and neither can the Old Scholar."
I said, "Guo the Blind is a local doctor and also an expert in poisons. He could easily make all the guards around the coffin fall asleep at night or even control them to lose consciousness and pry open the coffin..."
"Enough! She's just a dead woman from Outer Village; there's no reason for you to go insane over this. If it weren't for Huzi, you wouldn't even have the right to speak with me. Get lost!" Li Fugui said angrily.
"Grandpa!" Huzi said, feeling a bit troubled. On one side was his grandfather, and on the other was his best friend.
"Then I'll take my leave, Huzi." I said goodbye to Huzi with a hint of disappointment as I stepped out of his house.
Huzi wanted to catch up and comfort me, but Li Fugui coldly remarked, "You better come back, and from now on, stay away from someone like Yang Hao. He's messed with things he shouldn't have, and it won't end well for him. I'll give you something to prevent you from getting into trouble too."
When I returned home, my mother was washing clothes in the yard. Upon seeing me, she said, "Son, I've heard about what happened at the village entrance. What's done is done; there’s nothing that can’t be overcome."
"I know, Mom." I replied and went back to my room.
The sheets and blankets in my room had already been replaced with new ones, and the bed had been rearranged. I understood that my mother was worried I would be reminded of painful memories.
If it were any other parents, they would likely refuse to use bedding that had been associated with death or anything that had been used before. But my mother wasn't like that. I could tell she didn't despise Zhou Manman; from her previous behavior, it seemed she had known for a long time that Zhou Manman was not alive.
I knew my mother was hiding something from me. Throughout my life, she had pretended to be strong in front of me while enduring many grievances for my sake. But I understood she did it for my own good.
Yet I couldn't comprehend why she chose to conceal the fact that Zhou Manman was a ghost. Having Zhou Manman around certainly brought me no benefit; what was she trying to achieve?
But now, it didn’t matter anymore because Zhou Manman was dead. If someone from Outer Village died in Futu Ridge, they could not be buried in the Ancestral Grave. Therefore, Zhou Manman's ashes and the remnants of the burned branches were all unceremoniously pushed into the Pond.
Life is so fragile, and fate plays such cruel tricks on a girl.
I felt a deep sadness.
Zhou Manman's figure kept appearing in my mind—her voice and smile, sometimes charmingly shy and at other times pitifully delicate—replaying over and over again, making it hard for me to sleep.
In the middle of the night, I suddenly woke up from my sleep, startled by a dream of the terrifying Big Black Cat. The Black Cat was sitting beside my pillow, staring at me, but I couldn't move. It wasn't until it lunged to bite my neck that I was jolted awake.
The fear felt like the sensation of free-falling from a great height.
I was drenched in cold sweat.
The next afternoon, I groggily woke up to find a towel on my head and my body feeling weak.
I walked into the yard, squinting against the sun's glare. My mother saw that I was awake and hurriedly said, "Son, you scared me to death! This morning when I called you, you wouldn't wake up. I found out you had a fever, so I called Mr. Guo. He prescribed some medicine for you; just take it and you'll be fine."
"I’m not drinking his medicine," I replied irritably.
"Why not?"
"Afraid it’s poisonous."
"It’s just a fever; some antipyretics will do. I went to buy some." Just then, Huzi walked in, holding a pack of fever-reducing tablets.
"Alright then, if you don’t want to drink Chinese medicine, that’s fine. I'll get you some water for the pills. Thank you, Huzi."
"What are you thanking me for, Auntie? I'm closer to Hao than brothers; please don’t be so polite with me. It makes me feel like an outsider."
"Okay then, you two have fun."
After my mother left, Huzi said, "Last night my grandfather didn’t come home all night and took the shotgun with him. When he returned this morning, he looked really exhausted. When I asked where he went, he wouldn’t tell me and told me not to ask too much. The most concerning part is that he seems to have been injured."
"Injured?" I asked, puzzled. "With your grandfather's skills, who could possibly hurt him?"
"I'm just as confused. No one from Futu Ridge could ever defeat him, and he had a gun with him last night, so I suspect he went to the back mountain."
"With a hunting rifle, going to the back mountain—he wouldn't be hunting that Big Black Cat, would he?" I wondered aloud, sharing with Huzi about my dream of the Big Black Cat from last night.
That Big Black Cat was unlike any other; it wasn't a ghost, but it certainly had an otherworldly aura. It had survived being stabbed by Zhou Cheng and even took a bullet without dying.
But now that its owner was dead, what could it possibly do?
After discussing for a while with Huzi and still feeling puzzled, we decided to head to the back mountain and see if we could uncover anything.
On the way, Huzi mentioned that he had stopped by my house earlier that morning and saw Old Man Wang on the road. Old Man Wang looked somewhat anxious and didn't respond when called. Since Old Man Wang usually kept close company with Guo the Blind, Huzi approached him and slipped him a pack of cigarettes to inquire about Guo the Blind.
Seeing that Huzi had given him a pack of soft China cigarettes, Old Man Wang paused and spoke mysteriously: "I don't know about Guo the Blind's situation, but someone related to him might be coming back."
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